The Ouachita Parish Police Jury heard from Land 3 Architects’ Bill Land Monday night about an issue that has been driving the community for several months now.

Volunteers at the shelter and community members have rallied behind a movement sparked by volunteer Mary Bowler and her daughter, who asked the Police Jury to consider building a state-of-the-art, climate-controlled shelter that could handle the massive amount of animals the operation brings in.

“We’ve been out to the facility several times,” Land said of the Ouachita Parish Animal Shelter. “It’s our goal to have a preliminary plan and a building program that we can take back to (Shelter Director Hack Tull) and his staff and see if we need to make any changes.”

Land said the firm is considering two different options to recommend to the Police Jury.

“The goal is to look at the existing facility to see if it would be conducive for renovations, and the possibility of a new facility on that site or a new site,” he said. “We tend to bring a final assessment to the Police Jury in September.”

Community members have started an online petition, the second this year on the issue, to urge the Police Jury to build a new facility. The current petition has 1,780 signatures, while the earlier one garnered more than 2,000.

The Police Jury also added a new tax to the ballot for a select few within the community during the Nov. 21 election.

The resolution will allow several houses in the Frenchman’s Bend subdivision to create a road lighting district and impose a $75 property tax on themselves for 10 years to pay for the cost of street lights.

“Now we’re looking at doing this for units 9-14,” Juror Walt Caldwell said. “There’s some additional units, but those units aren’t sold out yet. There’s no real reason at this point to try and get those lighting districts set up.”

Road lighting districts already exist for the previous units. Caldwell said the same districts will be coming for future units, but only when there are enough people living in the area.

“Most of them are going to vote for it,” he said. “We attended the homeowner’s association meeting this year and it was expressed that they wanted to get this on the ballot as soon as possible.”

The Police Jury also divided election precinct 51. Because of how the state regulates election precincts, there is a maximum amount of people allowed in each precinct. The precinct was divided to come into compliance with that regulation.

The voters in the precinct voted at Calhoun Middle School and that will continue.